Position and audience (Matilde)

American University’s Health and Promotion Advocacy Center provides a variety of health-based services and educational opportunities to keep the AU community safe and informed. My audience is the HPAC staff. I am specifically targeting those who are in charge of selecting which contraceptives to give out. One of the services that they provide to the AU community includes free contraceptives, including male and female condoms, lubricants, and dental dams. When it comes to condoms, there is no consensus on how long it takes for condoms to break down, and many of them contain harmful chemicals to the environment. Furthermore, the condoms provided by HPAC are individually packaged in plastic, which is incredibly harmful to the environment (GreenPeace 2014). Almost everyone has or will engage in sexual acts and it is imperative that they engage in safe sex. That being said, it is also important that our safe sex does not come at the expense of the environment. Thus, I am advocating that HPAC provide more environmentally sustainable contraceptives. 


Works Cited

  • Morgan, Christina Dawn. “Guide to Eco-Friendly Sex.” Greenpeace USA, 3 July 2015, www.greenpeace.org/usa/earth-friendly-sexy-times/.

Essay 2 Body Paragraph

In her Los Angeles Times Op-Ed article, science fiction writer Usha Lee McFarling explains the extremity of the deterioration of coral reef habitats and how our quick reactions to save them might not be as beneficial as we think. She immediately starts the article with pathos. The first sentence of the article, “The Great Barrier Reef is bleached and dying,” (McFarling 2019) uses a short and curt sentence to invoke emotion in the reader. By starting the article off with a sentence like this one, McFarling immediately catches the readers attention and indicates that the topic of the article is important and dire.  McFarling, then, backs up her extreme claim with the statement, “nearly all of the world’s corals are projected to be dead by 2050,” (McFarling 2019). She also uses logos to explain the process of how the ocean’s warming negatively affects coral reef habitats. She describes the race to save coral reefs as “revolutionary” and the various methods introduced to save them as “Hail Mary’s” and “heroic,” to emphasize just how important it is that we save the coral reefs. However, she also states that it is important for us to be cautious so that our efforts don’t “backfire” on us in the process. The goal, is to reverse the harm we’ve done, not cause more harm.

Essay 2 Texts

Chasing Coral. Dir. Jeff Orlowski. Netflix, 2017. Film. https://www.netflix.com/title/80168188

  • This documentary is targeting the general public, more specifically, the general public who watches Netflix movies. Because this movie is sponsored by and exclusively featured on Netflix, it’s primary audience are those who have Netflix subscriptions. It is listed in Netflix’s categories as “documentary,” “science & nature docs,” and “controversial,” so it is targeting people who are interested in those types of movies or tv shows.


Wilner, Michael. “Trump Administration Throws Cold Water on Climate Change Threat to Coral Reefs.” Newsobserver, Raleigh News & Observer, 7 Aug. 2019, www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article233580062.html.

  • Because this is a general news page, their audience is the general public. More specifically, because this newspaper is based in Raleigh, North Carolina, they are most likely targeting people in that area. Additionally, the title mentions Trump and climate change, so it is intending to target those who are interested in that topic as well. 


McFarling, Usha Lee. “Op-Ed: Scientists Are Borrowing from Dystopian Sci-Fi in a Last-Ditch Effort to Save Coral Reefs.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2019, www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-mcfarling-coral-reef-solutions-20190619-story.html.

  • Because this article is by the LA Times, they are primarily targeting people in Los Angeles. Furthermore, because this is a news article, it is also targeted to the general public, particularly the general public who is interested in sci-fi and dystopian type topics as well as the general public who is interested in coral reef and ocean-related topics. I can tell this because of the title. Based on the way the title is formulated, I can get a clear idea of who the author is trying to target by them mentioning “dystopian sci-fi” as well as the article’s overarching topic being about coral reefs.


~ Matilde E